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Darren was born to Claude and Agnes Barksdale at 11:56 p.m. on August 31, 1978. His twin sister Darian was born at 12:03 a.m. on September 2, 1978. Five hours after Darren was born, a fetal monitor was attached to make sure that twin #2 was doing OK. Twin #2 was fine, and the doctors decided to let nature take its course.

Claude was a mailman. While delivering to the University, he would take his lunch break and sit under a tree. One day, a young woman was sitting under “his” tree. He saw her and turned to leave when she motioned for him to join her. She introduced herself as Agnes Ferris and claimed that she had been watching him for several days.

Claude and Agnes quickly started dating, and he asked her to marry him under that tree on October 14, 1975. Agnes said yes and dropped out of college the following day. They were married October 31 at City Hall.

Twins Darren and Darian were nothing alike. She was extroverted, and he was an introvert. She was popular and athletic. He lacked social skills and was clumsy. In spite of their differences, they were always very close and shared the same bedroom until they entered their early teens. For a few months after Darren was moved to his own room, he would sleep on Darian’s floor because he hated being alone. Agnes understood how he felt, so she took him to the pet store and let him pick out a “roommate.” He chose an Irish Setter pup he named Red, and she slept at the foot of his bed every night.

Darren was a momma’s boy, and Darian was Daddy’s little girl. Claude was always a little embarrassed by his son’s behavior. To Claude, Darren’s need to always be clean and his desires for everything to always be neat and tidy seemed a little too “girly” for him.

Darren graduated at the top of his high school class and was accepted by the University of Mississippi. College life was better for Darren than he expected. He made several good friends during his college years and shares an apartment with one of them to this day. His friends always comment how he would fit right in with the guys on the TV show The Big Bang Theory.

During his first year of college, Darren worked as a member of the Geek Squad at the Best Buy in Tupelo. He quickly moved up the ladder and eventually was promoted to manager. Even though he went ahead and earned his accounting degree, he decided to stay on as manager at Best Buy after he graduated. He loves the job and still commutes there five days a week.

Darren is a social drinker, and while out with his friends one evening in May of 2009, he met Annette Wyatt at The Library sports bar. He has been dating her ever since. Even though Annette had been acting differently for about a month, he intended to ask her to marry him the Saturday night before she was found dead.